Armstrong paid motorcyclist to deliver banned substance

Lance Armstrong paid for a motorcyclist to deliver the banned bloodbooster EPO to him during the 1999 Tour de France, according to former team mate Tyler Hamilton.

The American cyclist, who won the Tour a record seven times from 1999 to 2005, has been stripped of his titles by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) who have accused him of playing a central role in an elaborate doping conspiracy.

"Yeah, in '99 we had a motorcycle driver...we had him follow the Tour around for the better part of three weeks," said Hamilton in a BBC radio documentary broadcast on Monday.

Hamilton was one of Armstrong's U.S. Postal teammates from 1998 to 2001.

"He'd stay close enough to where we were staying at the hotels to drop off at any key moment. We knew other people were going to take risks so we were gonna take it too," added Hamilton.

"Lance paid him between $15,000 to20,000 to do it…Then, as Lance had won the Tour, we would all club together to buy him a Rolex watch. Somewhere out there he's wearing a gold Rolex watch."

Hamilton, who was stripped of his 2004 Olympic time trial gold medal, gave evidence to the USADA probe, which published its findings last week.

The report concluded that Armstrong was one of the ringleaders in U.S. Postal's doping scheme.

Armstrong has always denied taking banned substances but has decided not to challenge the USADA charges.